This presentation uses data from the United Kingdom's National Health Service from February 2017 to show prescribing of Symbicort inhalers based on the practice size. Symbicort is a metered dose inhaler commonly prescribed for patients diagnosed with Asthma or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

Data sources

• NHS Prescribing for prescribing data (http://content.digital.nhs.uk/gpprescribingdata)
• NHS Business Services Authority - List size and British National Formulary (BNF) codes - requires guest login (https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/prescrequires using guest login to download)

library(dplyr)
setwd("C:/Users/Jim/Documents/Rstudio_Projects/datasciencecoursera/NHS_Prescribing")
practice <- read.csv("Practice_Practice_January-.csv")
prescribing <- read.csv("T201702PDPI+BNFT.CSV")
bnf <- read.csv("20170403_1491209100384_BNF_Code_Information.csv")
presBNF <- merge(prescribing, bnf, by.x="BNF.CODE", by.y="BNF.Presentation.Code")
symbicort <- subset(prescribing, BNF.CODE == "0302000K0BDABAM")
symbByPractice <- merge(symbicort, practice, by.x="PRACTICE", by.y="PracticeCode", all=FALSE)
symbByPractice <- subset(symbByPractice, GP.practice == "Yes")
 symbByPractice <- subset(symbByPractice, Total != "0")